Turning Mistakes Into Miracles // Defining Moments, Part 1

Have you ever made one too many mistakes? You know, you get to a point where you think, That's it! God must be done with me? Well, Abraham was a man of faith who made plenty of mistakes along the way. Yet God seemed to overlook, even o compensate for them. Why was that? Life Changing Moments As we travel through life we all kind of experience these moments and often they are seemingly insignificant events that in fact, turn out to change the whole course of our lives. It's amazing when you think about it! We all have a plan for our lives but there are things just around the next corner or just over the next rise that can change everything – good things and bad things, happy things and sad things. Some people think, "Well, it's all a matter of chance." Well, I don't believe in chance. I remember a brochure that changed my life. I was attending a little church – I had not long become a Christian and it was a Sunday service like every other Sunday. At the end of the service I walked to the back of the little church and I saw a brochure for a particular Bible College, Tabor College in Sydney. It wasn't a particularly attractive brochure or a well designed brochure – I picked it up and that was a defining moment – I took it home, I read about this ministry degree, I prayed and I felt this incredibly strong tug in my heart. Now in my mind I am thinking, "There's no way. You know Berni, you have been a Christian for five minutes" but in my heart I knew. So I rang them, I applied, I went to see the Principal, I felt like such a fraud. "They are never going to accept me." They did! And there I learned so much but also, by chance again, I came into contact with my predecessor in this ministry; the former CEO of Christianityworks and one thing led to another. And today I'm doing what I am doing because I picked up that little brochure at the back of the church. Now I had no idea that morning that something would happen that would change the course of my life. This week we are starting a new series on Christianityworks, it's called "Defining Moments". It's really exciting! I want to look at this from a different perspective; from God's perspective. See when we look back on our lives most of us can pick three or four, maybe half a dozen defining moments – those little things that seemed to change the whole course of our lives. Now, sure we can see them from our natural human perspective – after all, we are people; we're human, but if we do that I think we miss the point. I want to look at some defining moments in the lives of four people in the Bible – Abraham, Joseph, David and Josiah over the next four weeks and we are starting today with Abraham. I want to see if we can discover how God reaches into our lives with miracles - great and small to define the very course of our lives because God does have a plan. Psalm 139, verse 16, says: Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In Your book were written all the days that were formed for me when none of them as yet existed. And when we at least expect it, and even despite what you and I do or fail to do, His plan is worked out through His grace for His glory. God brings those defining moments. Let's start with Abraham - the man with whom God's engagement of His chosen people began. He was living comfortably in a place called Ur, east of Israel – of course Israel didn't exist back then. Ur was the land of the Chaldeans, later it was called Babylon – it's just south of modern day Baghdad. And he travelled with his father up to Haran and then God called him to leave his comfort and follow this really crazy, absolutely incredulous promise. Let's pick it up – if you have got a Bible, grab it; open it up at Genesis chapter 12. We are going to look at the story of Abraham – it's too much to look at it all in one programme but we are going to have a look at part of his story. Genesis chapter 12, beginning at verse 1: Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abram when as the Lord had told him and Lot when with him. Abram was seventy five years old when he departed form Haran." Seventy five years old! "He and Sarai his wife and they were childless." You see, you have to remember, in the Old Testament, blessing; God's blessing, you knew you had it when you had lots of land and lots of children. They had neither, so they didn't have God's blessing on their lives. Now the word "Abram" means "exalted father". So even his name was a joke, but still he went, off into the never never, based on what – some intangible, crazy call from God? Remember Abram had no Bible; he had no Scriptures to reveal who God was. He had no church ...